Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Jerky help

Ma Ma gave me an early x-mas gift a dehydrator for jerky.
Looking for some help to get started. I would like to make some pepper jerky and some plain.
Anyone have any cure mixes they care to share?

We've come to favor Backwoods HOT jerky seasoning from LEM. Used it on ground beef, ground venison and on whole muscle venison. Pretty spicey, just the way we like it. Recieved it as a gift and after trying it, never bothered to come up with our own recipe.

Scott

I marinate the jerky strips in a brine of soy sauce,brown sugar and non iodized salt,for 24 hours.I then rinse off the meat and allow it to air dry till it's tacky.Then I rub in cracked black pepper and crushed chili peppers for some heat.

I started using this stuff and it is great. It is also cheaper than making your own mix I am finding. I just bought the inferno and have yet to try it. The original is very good and is a pepper based jerky. Give them a try. http://www.himtnjerky.com/

1 qt of water, 3/4 cup of brown sugar, 1/4 cup of plain (non-iodized) salt

Heat the water so that all the sugar and salt dissolves.

Brine meat for 2-4 days in the refrigerator, agitating occasionally to make sure all the meat gets exposed to the brine.

Drain brine, and rinse twice with cold water. Sprinkle with coarse black pepper after you have it on the racks if you want peppered jerky.

I smoke this, using 2 pans of apple or hickory in a big chief smoker. I'm not sure how it will turn out in the dehydrator, but I expect it will be OK.

Good luck,

tq

My experience with jerky is there is no set brine time. Previously frozen meat will absorb the brine about twice the rate as fresh meat or half the brine time. The % of salt should be considered into the brine time. A long brine time with a high % of salt will make the product too salty to eat although it will have the shelf life of a Twinkie. More salt, less brine time. The width of the strips will also dictate the brine time. The thicker pieces will require a longer brine time. The temprature of the brine and the product will make a difference, also.

To produce a consistant product I strive to standardize either the method or product. To standardize the product I freeze the meat or fish. Then I let it thaw partially so the ice chrystals are still present. I then can slice the meat with a real consistancy for width and thickness.

I generally use a 5% salt solution with brown sugar and molasses. I use a wet brine. Cold distilled or filtered water. I brine for about 4 hours then rinse, dry with a clean towell, dry on the racks then into the cold smoker for 4 hours. The balance of the time to finish is drying to the desired texture.

My cold smoked products are essentially raw. The concept of a ground meat jerky product makes me chill at the thought.pak

I'm curious why some of you brine jerky, preservation? We vacuum pack and freeze our surplus. If we're using whole muscle we season the strips and let set refridgerated overnight and then dry in the oven or in a dehydrater. As for ground jerky, it was a matter of making the meat go farther. The grinder eliminated the need for most of the trimming, and also allowed us to use very tough and odiferous buck meat by mixing it with sweeter, left over doe. The stinking buck-in-rut meat was too strong smelling to use even as ground meat but mixed with doe it makes great (ground) jerky.

Scott

Traditional jerky is just dried meat. It is a way to preserve excess meat without refridgeration. The addition of salt(brine) was and is a way to prevent the growth of bacteria, on the jerky. Salt enhances taste also. Vac packing and freezing is fine but with real jery it is not necessary. The jerky I buy is preserved by drying and salt. It also contains other chenicals to preserve color and texture.

The quality of your product is a result of the base product chosen and its care. Raunchy old caribou is going to be raunchy old jerky. The ground meat jerky, in my mind, is not really jerky but dried ground meat. The grinding adds many more times the surface area for which bacteria to grow. In humid climates this could cause many quick trips to the potty.pak

Thank you for all the posts. I guess I should have been more clear with my intentions. I will be doing muscle meat style jerky. The drying process will be done with a dehydrator. I guess my biggest question is what are you guys doing to the meat to flavor it before drying. But, all these responses have been a learning time for me this is all new to me.
Thanks

My suggestion would be to experiment and enjoy the results. My base bine(flavoring) is sugar based. I use molasses and brown sugar. Try adding the flavor you like. Some add honey, pepper, spices, smoke and who knows what. Make sure that all of the fat is removed from the meat as it is prone to go rancid. Let us know how it all turns out.pak

p.s. there is a ton of recipes, methods and resource material available. This will cut down on the failures. The maker of your dehydrator probably has a few in the material that came in the box.

Salt, pepper, maybe some garlic powder, let it sit overnight in the frig after you seasoned it. Make jerky. I'm old fashioned, dont like soy sauce, brown suger, etc on my jerky.

I must have a non-traditional taste for jerky. I've been told that liquid smoke is blasphemy. But I make mine with the following recipe and it always gets eaten faster than I can make it.

2 lbs. Lean venison cut into strips

2 cups water
3 tbs RealLemon
2 tsp liquid smoke
2 tsp Soy sauce
2 tsp Worchesteshire sauce
2 tbs salt
2 tbs brown sugar
2 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp cayene pepper

Marinate meat in the mixture in a glass or plastic container for two days in the refrigerator. Remove meat and dry it in the food dehydrator or the oven set on it's lowest temp.

Heck, pds since we aren't planning to go commercial in making jerky all we are trying to please is ourselves, right? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Mine is pretty much like yours. I do not remember who or where the basic recipe came from it has been too long ago. I fiddled with it until I came up with this that pleases me.

Slice meat in thin strips

Marinade is

1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup Worchistershire sauce
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 Tbs garlic powder
1 Tbs liquid smoke
3 Tbs Hot sauce
1/2 cup molasses
1 Tbs black pepper
1 Tbs salt.

Mix this up in a plastic bag, stick the meat in the bag and seal. Put in icebox for at least a day. Roll the bag around every few hours so all the meat gets a coat.

Dry @ 8-9 hours depending on the weather.


BCR